Oblation

deviant art by baddogLtd


OBLATION


I sent you the wrong version of the poem,
the one that had me in it.
I was supposed to hide behind the rose.
Behind the stone, the barn, the new garage.
Since I move with an animal’s desire
I should disappear like one,
Damascus road and no one knows,
I thought I saw myself approaching me,
a big man with a book in his hand,
and looking at me the way I look at you,
and was afraid. Did he mean
to join with me and leave no room
for me to vary from the pattern,
terrible monogamy of being oneself?


Robert Kelly

Posted over on Charlotte Mandell

from MAY DAY: Poems 2003-2005